A game, Irving and a wedding

The past weekend was a busy one.

Hubby planned that we watch a game on Saturday at the Oakland Coliseum. H is a big fan of the A’s (Oakland Athletics). That day they were giving away a baseball hat to the first 10k fans in the ballpark. Of course hubby wants to make sure that we will be counted within that limit and so he says we must all (my sister and aunt included) be ready to leave the house by 930a. The ballpark opens at 11 and the distance from our house about half an hour tops—you do the math, hubby thinks it’s never too early to get there on game days like these. On the other hand, the only time I was grateful we left early was that en route, I took the wrong exit and had to navigate out of the bad part of the town.

We were starving by the time 11 rolled by and we entered the coliseum. One good thing about places like these these days is that they now give you a variety to choose from when it comes to ballpark food. Besides the traditional hotdogs and beer, they now also sell items from ice cream served on a mini plastic baseball cap, Gordon Biersch garlic fries to bbq ribs—yum! H and I shared a foot long hotdog and some chicken strips. Ballpark food is the only thing I basically look forward to when going to a game as I am not a big baseball fan. No offense to my husband or to other fans alike, but I feel the games are a tad slow and boring. Okay, not counting the times when they hit a homer or do a great base save! And the A’s do have exceptional aficionados when they play a home game—some even converging in the parking lot with tents, barbecuing and hanging out. You will see a majority wearing the team’s baseball cap, t shirt or jersey and a number carrying their homemade signs. Even though the A’s lost to the Chicago whitesox that day, we still sat through the entire nine innings under the sweltering sun. Highlight of the game was actually finding my sister’s image on the huge billboard for what seems like eternity and she won a price for it—not bad! Also it would have been even better if Mark Mulder was also pitching this game!

I find this video clip of a commercial really amusing—on the link, click and play the “Screaming Girls” video on the bottom left.

PLAY THIS

After the game, we tried to make it back to the city as fast as we can from the Bay bridge all across town to Irving St to try to get a haircut for the wedding we were to attend the next day. If one doesn’t want to delve into the maze of the original SF Chinatown, one would go to Irving St. I call it the second Chinatown of San Francisco. We are regular customers (suki) of this hair salon on 22nd and Irving. H got a buzz-cut and I got a trim with extra layers amidst the loud (I mean LOUD) bantering of the six or so hairdressers. While we were in there my aunt was a few doors down getting a pedi. She got her big toes painted with some design which my sister describes as similar to a painting of a fungus (haha), you be the judge-what do you think?-->

Then off we went for our 720p reservation at the nearby popular Thai restaurant, Marnees. I love their specialty spicy chicken wings. Not a good weekend diet- and budget-wise!

Sunday was a wedding event day. My cousin was getting married and so we had to drive to Union City in the East Bay. Feeling really old that day, as I realized I used to baby sit the bride when we used to all live down in LA. The wedding wasn’t held in church but in a community hall, wedding and reception all in one. Here we call it a ‘non-denominational’ rite. There was a mix of an Indian American blessing (a feather with strong incense being waved by the reverend) after the vows which I still find quite unique and somewhat strange considering that the majority of the guests were Filipinos. My sister and I mostly took pictures, all 300 or so of them. My feet started to hurt after all this—gravity and food all weighed down on the pointy shoes I was wearing. Special thanks to my friend, Girlie, back home, for easily suggesting an outfit for me to wear to the wedding. That pink poncho over a black dress worked out well and served its purpose of hiding the bulges here and there (haha, yes, got those!). As my usual self, left before the event ended. The mother of the bride, knowing me too well, just rolled her eyes, seeing my typical habit of what I call my ‘hi-bye’ syndrome whenever I visit—oh well.

So now I wonder why does it feel like I didn’t have a two-day non-working weekend at all?

Copyright 2004 Wandertrekker